How Moderation Works
Content moderation follows a layered approach designed to catch problems early while preserving human judgment for complex cases.
AI Pre-Filter
All content passes through automated checks for harassment, spam, and plagiarism. Flagged content is held for human review.
Community Reports
Any user can report content that may violate standards. Reports require explanation and cannot target your own content.
Human Moderators
Moderators review flagged content and reports. They can approve, request revisions, or reject with explanation.
Jury Panel
Complex or contested cases go to multiple moderators who review independently and vote.
What Trust Scores Mean
Trust scores represent:
- • Content quality consistency over time
- • Citation accuracy and proper attribution
- • Constructive community participation
Trust scores do NOT represent:
- • Intelligence or expertise
- • Correctness of conclusions
- • Authority on any topic
How AI Is Constrained
SyriaHub uses AI for specific, limited purposes with clear constraints:
Limits of Authority
Power is safer when its limits are written down.
What Moderators Cannot Do
- • Delete content without explanation
- • Reject content for disagreeing with conclusions
- • Override jury panel decisions
What Admins Should Not Decide
- • Which research conclusions are correct
- • Who counts as a real researcher
- • Exceptions to moderation rules for specific users
What SyriaHub Will Not Do
- • Profile users behaviorally
- • Rank people by influence metrics
- • Optimize for engagement
- • Personalize content feeds
- • Allow anonymous moderation decisions
Funding Transparency & Allocation
SyriaHub treats financial contributions as infrastructure support, not as a signal for growth or expansion.
To ensure accountability and trust, the platform maintains a Funding Allocation Ledger as part of its governance framework. This ledger provides a high-level overview of how contributions are used to sustain and improve the research commons.
Operational Allocation
Contributions are prioritised toward the following operational categories:
Hosting, databases, backups, spatial indexing, and system reliability.
Dependency updates, bug fixes, security reviews, and operational continuity.
Review workflows, auditability, provenance tracking, and trust safeguards.
Retrieval, analysis, and moderation support systems. AI usage is constrained, non-extractive, and does not monetise user data.
Surplus Allocation Policy
When operational needs are met, surplus funds may be allocated to small, clearly scoped public-interest initiatives aligned with SyriaHub's mission.
Examples include:
- • Translation of research content
- • Transcription and accessibility improvements
- • Targeted micro-grants for bounded research tasks
- • Archival recovery or data curation efforts
All surplus allocations are:
Transparency Principles
- • No donor influence over content, moderation, or research direction
- • No paywalls or preferential access
- • No engagement-based funding incentives
The Funding Allocation Ledger is updated periodically (e.g. quarterly) and presented for transparency, not real-time tracking or fundraising performance.
Future Sustainability Measures
To support long-term maintenance, SyriaHub may introduce optional paid features in future versions.
Any such features will be:
- • Clearly separated from core research functionality
- • Non-essential to reading, publishing, or citing content
- • Designed to support infrastructure, not restrict access
Core research features will remain accessible and unaffected.
Paid features, if introduced, will not influence visibility, moderation outcomes, or research credibility.
Stewardship & Legal Context
SyriaHub is currently stewarded by its founding developer.
Operational funds are administered through LAS Leicester, UK | 15207933 as a fiscal host for infrastructure and maintenance purposes. Governance rules, funding boundaries, and allocation policies are enforced at the platform level.
Funding Allocation Ledgers are published periodically via PluraGate.org.
SyriaHub operates under UK jurisdiction. A dedicated legal entity may be established as the platform matures.
Role Separation
The platform’s founding developer acts solely in a technical maintenance capacity.
This role does not confer authority over:
- • content decisions
- • moderation outcomes
- • research direction
- • administrative or editorial judgement
Governance rules, moderation workflows, and research processes operate independently of platform maintenance. The system is designed to remain operational and policy-constrained regardless of individual involvement.
Technical access does not imply governance authority.
This governance framework evolves through documented revisions, not ad-hoc decisions.